Scientists find the first 100 trillion carat diamond 4000 ly away.

This gets me to thinking... will a gold rush in space (or diamond rush as the case may be) be the thing that really gets us going in terms of colonization of space.  Let's say there's 10 billion dollars worth of gold found to be easily available on the moon.  If it only costs 9 billion to go there and bring it all back... you've just made a billion dollars.  If you can do it for 5, you've just doubled your money.  Which would be a good investment.

that was the premise of "avatar" - going to jupiter's moon to get some rock that's worth $20 millions per kilo.  apparently in the year 2250 they still haven't adopted the yuan standard.

Good luck dragging that bit o' glass away from the neutron star it orbits... ;)

Brings up a good point, though. If something considered a commodity down here is found in abundance out there, I wonder if we'd really go for it?

Let's say there was a diamond even 1/100th the size in orbit somewhere in the Solar System... right here. Or what if it turns out that the Moon had some titanic deposit of them (why not? it's made of the same basic stuff Earth is). What would DeBeers say abuot that? They won't be exactly eager to see the basis of their wealth turn into a cheap commodity, now would they? I suspect they'd either find some way to hold claim to it, or they'd go out of their way to sabotage any effort to get it (politically, physically, you-name-it). 

Some things would be worth it no matter what, and there'd be a rush for it - gold (excellent for electronics, plating, anti-corrosion, etc), silver (ditto), and water ice are good examples (seriously - the stuff can be turned into fuel, breathable air, and of course drinking/washing/etc water all in one go).  

Some things OTOH? They may have a high value here, but in many cases it is only because of rarity. We can literally make our own diamonds (usually for industrial uses), after all...

Quote - What would DeBeers say abuot that?

Diamonds, or at least low quality ones, are actually pretty common.  What happens is the big diamond companies keep a ton in reserve and limit the supply on purpose to keep the prices up.  From what I've heard, there's enough of them in existance that everyone in the US could have a handful or so of them.

I heard BIll Gates wife want to know why he hasn't gotten it for her yet.

I seem to remember somebody posting something about willing to go to the moon and back if they could get real SSS in poser.

I can't find the post...

With Poser 9 - Pro 2012 less then a month away...

I haven't seen anything in the news about any weird sightings of some type of space craft coming or going from the earth to the moon and back either....

...talk about an expensive upgrade!

About the Diamonds, I wouldn't put it past Branson to figure something out!

I think I read somewhere that there is enough gold on the ocean floor to give every person on Earth 9 pounds or something. I hope we leave it down there, we're doing a fine job of polluting the oceans without going deep sea mining.

SnowS

Absolutely. What I find so disgusting is that a lot the gems being sold at a hundred times their true value is that they are "blood diamonds", produced by the victims brutal slave labor.

It's also bitterly ironic that human technology can now produce diamonds that are indistinguishable form the natural product.

Quote - > Quote - What would DeBeers say abuot that?

 

Diamonds, or at least low quality ones, are actually pretty common.  What happens is the big diamond companies keep a ton in reserve and limit the supply on purpose to keep the prices up.  From what I've heard, there's enough of them in existance that everyone in the US could have a handful or so of them.

They say diamonds are a woman's best friend...

Give me a diamond. I will sell it and buy a lifetime worth of chocolate.

CHOCOLATE, people. Chocolate is a woman's best friend (specially in sad times of the month LOL)